snow

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See also: Snow and snów

English[edit]

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Snow-covered road.

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English snow, snaw, from Old English snāw (“snow”), from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw, from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”), from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”), from the root *sneygʷʰ-.

Cognate with Scots snaw (“snow”), West Frisian snie (“snow”), Dutch sneeuw (“snow”), German Schnee (“snow”), Danish sne (“snow”), Norwegian snø (“snow”), Swedish snö (“snow”), Icelandic snjór (“snow”), Latin nix (“snow”), Russian снег (sneg), Ancient Greek νίφα (nípha), dialectal Albanian nehë (“place where the snow melts”), Sanskrit स्नेह (snéha, “oil, grease”).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) enPR: snō, IPA(key): /snəʊ/, [snəʊ̯]
  • (US) enPR: snō, IPA(key): /snoʊ/, [snoʊ̯]
  • Audio (UK)
    		(file)
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊ

Noun[edit]

snow (countable and uncountable, plural snows)

  1. (uncountable) The frozen, crystalline state of water that falls as precipitation.
    • 1928, A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner,
      The wind had dropped, and the snow, tired of rushing around in circles trying to catch itself up, now fluttered gently down until it found a place on which to rest.
  2. (uncountable) Any similar frozen form of a gas or liquid.
    • 2008, Neal Asher, "Alien Archaeology"
      Clad in a coldsuit Jael trudged through a thin layer of CO2 snow ...
  3. (countable) A snowfall; a blanket of frozen, crystalline water.
    We have had several heavy snows this year.
  4. (uncountable) A shade of the color white.
    snow:  
  5. (uncountable) The moving pattern of random dots displayed on a television, etc., when no transmission signal is being received.
    Synonym: shash
  6. (uncountable, slang) Cocaine.
    • 1930, Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison
      Besides, if it wasn't poison, it might be 'snow' or something.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

Snowing, sense 1

snow (third-person singular simple present snows, present participle snowing, simple past and past participle snowed)

  1. (impersonal) To have snow fall from the sky.
    It is snowing.
    It started to snow.
  2. (colloquial) To hoodwink someone, especially by presenting confusing information.
    • 1958, Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King:
      Having passed them in review, I concluded that the best thing would be to try to snow him a little, so I said that I had heard many marvelous reports about the Wariri.
  3. (poker) To bluff in draw poker by refusing to draw any cards.
Usage notes[edit]
  • In older texts and still in dialects, the past tense snew and past participle snown may be encountered.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

See also

References[edit]

  • Brunson, Doyle (1978) Super/System: A course in power poker, B&G Publishing Company

Etymology 2[edit]

From Low German Snaue, or Dutch snaauw, from Low German Snau (“a snout, a beak”). See snout.

Noun[edit]

snow (plural snows)

  1. (nautical) A square-rigged vessel, differing from a brig only in that she has a trysail mast close abaft the mainmast, on which a large trysail is hoisted.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for snow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old English snāw

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Early ME, Northern ME) IPA(key): /snɑu̯/
  • IPA(key): /snɔu̯/

Noun[edit]

snow (plural snowes)

  1. snow (frozen water as precipitation, either while falling or once landed)
    • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎[1], published c. 1410, Apocalips 1:14, page 117v; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
      ⁊ þe heed of him ⁊ his heeris weren whiyt as whiyt wolle .· ⁊ as ſnow / ⁊ þe iȝen of him as flawme of fier .·
      And his head and his hairs were white, like white wool or snow, and his eyes were like fire's flame.
  2. snow-white (a snowy white)
  3. The temperature where snow appears.
  4. A blanket of snow; a snowing.

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: snow
  • Scots: snaw
  • Yola: sneow, sneew, snowe

References[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Noun[edit]

snow m (uncountable)

  1. snowboarding

Derived terms[edit]

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